| Nobuto Hosaka | |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Office: | 10th Mayor of Setagaya |
| Term Start: | April 27, 2011 |
| Predecessor: | Noriyuki Kumamoto |
| Office2: | Member of the House of Representatives |
| Term Start2: | October 20, 1996 |
| Term End2: | October 10, 2003 |
| Term Start3: | September 12, 2005 |
| Term End3: | July 21, 2009 |
| Birth Date: | November 26, 1955 |
| Birth Place: | Sendai, Japan |
| Party: | Independent (formerly of Social Democratic Party) |
| Website: | hosaka.gr.jp |
(born November 26, 1955) is a Japanese politician and the current mayor of Setagaya in Tokyo. In addition, he was a member of the House of Representatives for the Social Democratic Party until July 21, 2009.
Hosaka campaigned and won the mayor's job on an anti-nuclear platform in April 2011, just over a month after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. According to The Wall Street Journal, Hosaka "is determined to turn this city ward of 840,000 people, the largest in Tokyo, into the front-runner of a movement that will put an end to Japan's reliance on atomic power and accelerate the use of renewable energy".[1] [2]
Hosaka opposes the death penalty,[3] and held the position of secretary general of the Parliamentary League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.[4] He is also highly critical of continued Japanese moral panic against the Otaku subculture in the nation, with one notable case of criticism displayed against public and media related assumptions and gossip surrounding the incidents of November 17, 2004, when Kaoru Kobayashi murdered a 7-year-old girl.[5]
In 2006 and 2007, Hosaka joined the gay parade in Tokyo. Mizuho Fukushima, then-leader of the Social Democratic Party, also joined the event with him in 2007.[6]